Let 2025 begin....

My poor garden, June 9th and barely planted. Beans are coming up. Tomatoes finally in ground. Just half the peppers. Cantaloupes plants are in.eggplants are in, NOTHING ELSE. rained nearly all day yesterday rain due in a bit and thunderstorms floods due through tommorrow. It is a slug fest out there. Ive been placing coffee grounds and DE but the rains cancels the DE. Been through a bag already.

 

So flooding storms finally arrived. I got some things done. Red and swt. White o ion sets in. Another dozen tomatoes planted. I then got some seeds in. I planted summer squash, onebeing zucchini. A long rowif 3 different kinds of cukes.

 

My God this Garden is taking for ever to get planted. That and it's 1/3 the size.
Wasn't suppose to rain , it started raining so came in for lunch. To find a message you have an eye exam tomorrow. Yet another delay.
2 dozen tomato
18 hot peppers, a few regular sweet, 2 dozen mini sweet.
Cabbage
Broccoli,l
lettuce
A set of sweet onion, a set of red onion
Red taters
Cantalope
Pole beans
18 eggplant
Collard seed
Summer squash seed
hubbard seed
water melon seed
Several different kinds of cukes
S0inache seed in a shaded spot.

 

So eye appointment, forgot how bad I react to my eye dilation drops. Doc said he has a dozen patients like me. Queezy, light headed it lasts an entire day and the m9re light the worst the reaction. I have to wear a blk shade insert behind my glasses to get home.
Had to get new scrips filled disance and reading. I also have the start of cataracts. Not surprised I uave my grandmother's but eyes. Constantly cwateri g and she had cataracts in her 80's

 

I decided to nuke one of the bigger clover plots, the sedge and other crap is over taking a lot of it so it will get sprayed multiple more times before it gets re planted. The sedge hammer is slowly working on the other plots I sprayed with it but it is knocking back/hurting the clover too. It wasn’t supposed to but it is. It should recover but if it doesn’t I will put rye in there this fall

 

My clovers have exploded compare to last year. I've tried weed control through mowing but the rains are just killing me. I honestly can barely see my blueberry bushes and the areas around the garden I'm not planting are totally out of control.
This and my chicken flock explosion. Lol all my fault. I hatched to replace the three year olds and recover from hawk preditionlast year. I have 8 left from first hatch 5 hens and 3 roos. Gave others to grandkids. Then to my own stupidity I did another hatch. I had several fails in first that bugged me so felt the need to try a different approach to improve future hatches. Well that worked landing me another 11 chicks out of 14 eggs. Oh gee my foolishness didnt stop there. One of last years chicks decided to go broody. So I let her. Well what happened is she started to sit from the second she layed her first egg. Then I caught other hens going in next to her laying their eggs . She ended up sitting on well over 12 eggs. To the point I've had to feed and water her on hatch. Yesterday I brought her first chick over to brooder, last night she had hatched another. I will bring it over and any others that may have hatched last night. She has so many over a long stretch they can't hatch all at once like in the brooder. She can't or won't get them out in the 24hr mark to feed and water. The brooder is the only option. Besides we have 4 ft garter snake living at the coop. Bless his rodent killing heart. That said chicks would be easy fare.
This is time consuming, setting up various out door rearing spaces and introducing first chicks to the flock. The first 3 roos didn't sell, so I have them separated to butcher in August at 5 months. I don't know how many roos are in the second hatch yet.
Then there are the new turkey poults I have to set up new housing and breeding pen for. I hope I have a tom and 2 hens but they are still too young to tell. If I do it will be a 50/50 natural to incubator attempt on those to maximize the number of eggs produced for hatching. These will be pasture raised for our consumption and poults sold to cover costs. My chickens are totally free range with just enough feed to bring them home at night. I discovered beside the garden work, leaving the Gator over there, infront of the coop, has kept the spring baby feeding preditors at bay. My large old dog run, plus housing 6 foot high on the side of old dog house with motion detecting lights have worked for youngest chics. The lights go off nightly with what ever is climbing chain link. Or flying in, lots of owls around. Any hoos thats whats keeping me ...busy

 

I took some pics today. Problem is I can't post them from my new phone. I'm not signed in on new phone and apparently forgot my password to sign in. I have a reset email sent out but haven't gitten a reply yet. I dont actually understand it is a very easy password as passwords go for me....lol

 

Momma hen has hatch 5 healthy chicks so far. If she hatches them all 1 each DAY. This will drag out another 10-12 days. Holy Hades what have I done?!!!!....lol.

 

So never got a reset email. I decided to take the tablet out for pics. It's beeen mowed twice and obviously needs another. Now way to hot. Mid 90's. Thank heavens the hill has a breeze. That said I still nearly passed out getting the 2nd cross till done oncwhat will be my corn.
This is upper plot where I took my gun buck. Cam has had zero deer on it for weeks. There is all the alfala and thats tender regrowth then the farmer behind gypsy blind has either spring oats or wheat growing with his hay in between. That will all be gone this fall, but my clover will still be going strong.

 

Momma hen had #6 waiting for me yesterday morning. Going over to see if #7 is out there. Yesterday she was so mad at me while feeding and watering her on nest. She grabbed my wrist and refused to let go, growling and hissing like a cat. Dang close to drawing blood! Left a heck of a bruise.....lol

 

Holy moly , finally got the first 6, 16ft rows of sweet corn in. 4 more to go
#7 chick yesterday but none today.

 

So last 4 rows of corn are in , part of garden completely weeded, the monkey crates are just about cleared to use as in field poultry cages. A bear could not effect damage on these creates.
Momma hen hatched a chick last night and one this morning giving me # 8 & 9. I believe she sits on nest ,planning my demise for taking her chicks....lol

 

I'm sick to my stomach As I was fighting of hawks across the street, they heard the 11 chicks and 3 poults behind the house. I lost 2 of my 3 turkey poults. The ones I actually purchased. THEY never touched my over abundance of chicks with them. Setting back my breeding a year.
So today I have to construct the overhead structure to cover the entire kennel in overhead fencing.

 

I got #10 today.
I lost 2 of the turkey poults to a hawk and they never touched the numerous (11) baby chicks with them. I'm sick over it and it sets me back big time. I just got finished hawk proofing the kennel. 22x17ft
I installed 5 cross pipes then went to work measuring, cutting and installing the free 100ft of chicken wire that Amazon sent me. When that ran out, I put up green plastic fencing dbled for strength. Then I had a 20 x14 ft heavy duty tarp. That gives them lots of dry area to hang out in with all these storms.
It literally took me all day and I used materials on hand. Not pretty, due to not cutting pipe to size( hang over. That said it will keep out overhead preditors.
That F ing hawk circled me ALL day long screeching. I drove home from feeding laying hens and a turkey hen...zero poults in tow crossed drive to alfalfa feild....explains how the hawk targeted the poults only over the chicks.

 

I mowed alot of clover today, well over due but it finally stopped raining. The clover is bouncing back nicely since the sedge hammer slowed it up a bit, also the sedge is really starting to die.

 

Very good! It's the year for clover. H7bby mowed camp and came home astounded. We do not plant ANYTHING down there. Well the clover came in , apparently everywhere and tall and thick.
Also bear crap is everywhere and right up to camp door. Thankfully no damage.

 

I got the last chick #11 that makes a total of 36 live chicks this spring. I only needed 8 replacers...lol
The last chick hopped out of the nest and momma abandoned nest to protect her chick. 9 eggs in box, I took way out in the woods to check all but 2 were just yolk. 2 chicks that could have been born. Actually that would have made a 100% hatch on fertile eggs had the last one not jumped out.
BTW momma got her revenge, besides a 4 in scratch she drew blood as I fought her for the chick.
Yes, that's old lady skin....Wow how bad it looks up close... lol
This is why God Deminishes our eye sight as we get old, pure compation..hahahaha

 

Oh let the weeding begin...
Everything I planted is doing great except my second round of beans and I caught robins in my corn. They are the worst for finding my seed besides rodents. We'll see.
Nothing goes to waste so all chick litter and hen coop straw goes to the garden as mulch and eventual soil ammendment. I haven't had to buy fertalizer for the last 3 years. I also have a blue 55 gal. barrel I stuff with winter bedding and leave the top off to fill with water. Once full I top it and allow it all to rot in the water. This gets diluted with the water I use to heat the winter green house and fertalize the plants. All winter litter goes right into my raised beds with fall leaf litter ,garden greens to fill and make their own soil.
My potatoes are growing in those right now along with a ton of worms

 

Phewwww... I caught tbe corn fast enoughthis year. It was just peeking through when I checked th8s a.m.
I got out all my blueberry bird mesh and covered /weighted it down over the emerging seedlings. This is when the robons completely stripped last years corn. I planted so late there is no time for a replant as was done last year. I'll let it all pop then put in a few bricks with 2x4's on them to give growing space until they are bird proof. Right now the robins use that tiny bit of green as "pull tabs" to get to the kernals. Things I do to grow food for us..lol
I have tomatoes and iffy broccoli, as in tiny heads that may bolt. Something got all my second bean planting. Thankfully my pole beans produce a lot.

 

Lol, AF do you come back to my threads to see how long it takes for me to come back and correct my fat finger, light finger and semi dyslexic mistakes? I mean just to understand anything I typed.